Picture Book Saturday

Again!
By Emily Gravett
Published 2013 by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Gravett is one of those authors who I adore - I am always thrilled when I discover she's released a new book. Her books are fantastic because they are usually interactive and often provide ample opportunity for dialogic reading. This new book is no exception. This tells of a little dragon who loves hearing his favorite story every night at bedtime - and he often wants to hear it again. And again. And again. Soon, Mama Dragon gets tired and the bedtime story takes an unexpected turn. I love the illustrations - there is much to discover in them. Just a fun book that will definitely appeal to kids.

A Funny Little Bird
By Jennifer Yerkes
Published 2013 by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
An invisible bird wants to find new friends, so he begins to collect small adornments to make himself more noticeable. But he may get more attention than he bargained for. I want to like this book, but I'm not really there. This book feels like the author had a really creative and unusual idea for the illustrations but not a strong idea for the story. The illustrations are indeed quite fabulous - the use of white space is immensely interesting and can lead to great discussions with kids. I feel like the story doesn't really live up to the illustrations, however, so, as a whole, the book is a bit of miss for me.

Giant Dance Party
By Betsy Bird, illustrated by Brandon Dorman
Published 2013 by Greenwillow Books
I'm a pretty regular reader of Betsy Bird's blog (I assume you are, too), and I was excited to discover she was writing her own picture book. I got even more excited when she revealed the title and the cover because, come on, who could resist a giant dance party?? I was thrilled when the book finally arrived at my library and read it immediately. This book is sweet and charming and the illustrations suit the text just perfectly. I found it a tad long for anything younger than a preschool storytime, but I want to share it with kids anyway because it's just so fun. The extension ideas are endless and I'm a big fan of incorporating more dancing into storytimes. Just so much fun, I really liked this one.